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COP26: The role of food loss and waste in climate warming, loss of biodiversity and poor health

Food loss and waste globally accounts for an estimated 8 percent of annual GHG emissions, consumes a quarter of all water used by agriculture, and wastes enough agricultural land to cover the entirety of China.  This article explores the economic and environmental case for tackling food loss and waste.

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Last Mile Investments in Resilience: Financing COP26 for the Poorest Countries

It is now well recognized that encouraging private sources of finance for sustainable development, risk management, and resilience will be essential in achieving the SDGs.  However, efforts by mainstream sources of market finance, even if ‘innovative’ in design, may not always reach the ‘poorest of the poor’ because the latter are too remote or dispersed, their incomes are insufficient to pay for goods or services, or because the investments required are otherwise difficult to commercialize. Last mile, innovative financial mechanisms are therefore needed that support investments that either extend or link mainstream resilience initiatives to include the most vulnerable; and/or develop bespoke solutions for the most vulnerable. 

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The relationship between culture, values and development?

by websitebuilder-hub • 22 Jul, 2019
Organisations involved in supporting the development of systems and infrastructure in lower income countries have for long realised that changing hearts and minds is a critical part of the reform process. But many have not realised that simply transplanting market-based approaches to human resource management to traditional societies may not work since HR systems themselves make certain cultural and value judgements.

BRIC Prospects to 2050

by websitebuilder-hub • 22 Feb, 2018
OpenCities director Marc Stephens, who was formerly in charge of the Bank of England's global macroeconomic forecast, and led the establishment of the Mayor of London's office in Beijing in 2005, was commissioned to produce an analysis of the trade and growth prospects of these economic behemoths.

Development Initiatives Under the Tony Blair Government

by websitebuilder-hub • 22 Dec, 2017
The era when Gordon Brown was chancellor of the exchequer in the UK was a time of great innovation and experimentation in the field of regeneration and economic development with ideas adopted from the US and Europe at breakneck speed.

Universities and the Olympic Games

by websitebuilder-hub • 22 Nov, 2017
Part of the reason for London's success was that discussion about the Games' future legacy had begun even before the bid was won. In 2007 OpenCities director Marc Stephens (who was previously in charge of developing the blueprint for the Games' social legacy while at the Mayor of London's development agency) was asked to present a paper at a conference sponsored by the Guardian newspaper in London on how universities in countries such as the USA are an important source of future professional athletes.
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